852 HENRY A. MATTILL 



on arsenic waters are at hand. Uric acid elimination during the arsenic 

 water period is said to be decreased with an increase in the after period 

 (Croce(fr) ), but the presence of other salts is probably responsible for such 

 results as have been noted. The excretion of arsenic in the arsenic water 

 cures is subject to considerable individual variation (Nishi). A more 

 rapid increase in weight in animals receiving arsenic water as compared 

 with those receiving ordinary water has been reported for rabbits (Lar- 

 delli; Bachem) and for rats (Croce(a)) which is only partially explained 

 by an effect on the appetite. 



Radioactive Waters. The literature on radioactive waters is exten- 

 sive and much of its content is entirely characteristic of the bulk of min- 

 eral water literature. Radium is undoubtedly not without influence oil 

 metabolism but a great many statements about it are quite without experi- 

 mental foundation. As ordinarily used in "cures" radium emanation is 

 taken into the body by drinking radioactive water. When so taken it has 

 no influence on gastric secretion (Olszewski). In a bath in radioactive 

 water radium emanation enters not by the skin but through respiration 

 (Loewenthal), but that any considerable amount gets into the blood by this 

 means is improbable '(Gudzent(/)) since the amount in the blood was 

 found always to be about one-fifth of that in the expired air (Kemen). 

 After injection into the duodenum of animals (rabbits) Strasburger(&) 

 found it in three-fourth hours in the blood; after two hours only 

 a trace was left, and the time curve of emanation content of the blood 

 and of the expired air were the same ; by divided doses the content could 

 be maintained, but only about a third of the ingested radium emanation 

 gets into the systemic circulation at all, and only a very small fraction 

 is found there at any one time. Similar results were found after drink- 

 ing radium emanation water. In seemingly careful experiments by Pieper 

 the results of Strasburger were verified and it was estimated that two- 

 thirds of the ingested radium emanation was lost by way of the lungs. 

 A small fraction (1/4000) of the ingested radium emanation was also 

 demonstrated in the urine from which it had disappeared after three 

 hours (Laqueur(6)). In longer periods of radium emanation ingestion 

 the amount found in the urine gradually fell (Kalmann). Radium is 

 also excreted by the feces and in greater amounts than in the urine, and 

 in whatever manner given it may be found in the tissues (Meyer). 

 Thorium X seems to behave similarly and the bone marrow is said to be 

 most rich in it after administration (Brill). Measurements of radium 

 emanation in expired air are a good measure of the blood content (Spartz). 



Radium emanation is reported as having been used successfully for 

 the reduction of blood pressure, in the relief of anemia (Th. X), and for 

 the cure of gout ! and the literature on the latter is particularly extensive 

 and vacuous. The supposed transformation, solution and destruction 

 of uric acid by radium emanation (Gudzent(a) (c) (d) \ Engehnami; 



